Botched Garage Conversion

System

Looks like the builder has done the most straightforward, easiest job here, don't think it looks like a "bodge" as such...
The only way that you.could have successfully used brick and an identical window to the upstairs would have been to take down the whole wall and start again, anything else would still look like it's been done at a later date, garage conversions will always look like garage conversions if they just build up existing opening, I actually think the render in the picture is probably the best way to have done that in this instance, the way the window is spilt is really the only thing I would have an issue with, but then I would have been very careful in instructing the builder. I've found builders and window manufacturers sometime proposed the strangest arrangements when left to their own devices...

Mr.Generous

That's not bodge, if it doesn't meet the agreed specification for the work as detailed in the plans and paperwork that's another matter. Its work done to a price.

GrumpyDil

Yup. Only real issue I can see is with four paned window which would have looked better with three. Trying to centre window on inside would look strange on outside without major reworking and time

Silvertabby

I agree that the window looks better from the outside as a four pane. Three panes would have needed render on both sides which, to my mind, would look like you had been skimping on the pennies by going for a smaller window/more render.

I_have_spoken

3 does look better..

bouicca21

Nah, I'd go for the 4, plus render.

Furts

Rubidium wrote: »

The builder has gone for the quickest, easiest and therefore cheapest option with the larger window fully filling the gap and render below.

If he needed to order a window, he could have easily ordered a correct sized three pane one to match the others on the house but obviously chose not to, so most likely planned to do this from the outset.

With the wrong size window and not keying in the brickwork, it will always look like a garage conversion but everything should have been specified and agreed before the worked started.

It will always look like a garage conversion because it is a garage conversion. The three sash window looks fine from the outside, and had it been smaller it introduces weakness and technical issues with the piers that would be built each side.

What comes across is no Planning was sought, a Full Plans Building regs Application was not made, and a consumer has blasted ahead with a high speed job saying let us take a flyer on things turning out OK. Fine by me, but a consumer cannot complain when this approach causes problems. When a problem occurs it is controlled by witholding payment. Instead £5000 was paid for just five days work. This leaves me speechless.

To say the bricks are on the web is crazy - how does OP know they are the correct brick? But if they are then getting sample, matching, bricks is a fundamental before any building work is started - it is a fundamental of Planning. So why didn't OP do this? It is no good complaining now about tardiness earlier.

bouicca21

When I was looking to buy a few years ago I briefly considered a house that imho needed a garage conversion. I spent longer working out how to do it so that it looked as much like part of the original build as possible than I did on working out how much to offer on the house. No way would I have gone ahead with the conversion without detailed discussions and drawings. Doozergirl's photos remind me of just why that kind of thought is so important. I'd never be happy with the brick infill one. I don't understand why OP didn't have similar detailed discussions and drawings.

moneyistooshorttomention

Well - it's a lesson for anyone planning to do this in the future.

But I can understand that what has happened is that there have been two different sets of assumptions here as to how the finished job would be. OP knew that it would be done in a fully "matching" sort of way of course/with windows internally an appropriate distance both sides from the walls of course etc etc and their whole Basic Assumption was that it would look like the house had been built that way in the first place.

In hindsight - OP needed to be more cynical and lay down the exact rules as to just how it was going to land up looking like the house had been built that way in the first place. Followed by the builder having the commonsense to realise that, obviously, that is what OP meant.

This is where problems lie a lot of the time it seems to me - ie the owner knows how that aspect of the house would be if the house was built that way as from brand new and it's obvious that is how it's going to be done. Then builders come along with different standards and not realising that the house is supposed to look brand new....:cool:

I don't think it occurs to many builders that many home-owners have a vision in their heads of their house looking brand-new/purpose built that way....

Doozergirl

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I don't think it occurs to many builders that many home-owners have a vision in their heads of their house looking brand-new/purpose built that way....

...and I think that you make a ridiculous number of sweeping statements. One could also make the sweeping statement that those same home owners expect it for next to nothing. There's only one reason for not drawing out a design. It cannot look built for purpose, because it wasn't built for purpose.

Of course builders know that home-owners have vision and that is exactly what the builder has tried to do, taking cost, practicality and experience into consideration. There is nothing worse than a mismatched brick, apart from a mismatched brick on an obvious garage conversion. There are no matching bricks; you'd have to take the entire frontage of the projection down to attempt to make it look new and one side of that wall is close to one of the four *very* essential corners of the house. £6,700 does not buy you a knock down and rebuild and there's no guarantee that it would look hugely better if the bricks are discontinued.

What you don't seem to grasp is that whilst the ideal is for it all to be perfectly symmetrical and for the window to be centred as you look at it from inside, it would have to be totally askew on the outside. The better option is to hide it behind curtains on the inside, not have everyone looking at your wonky house. Bigger windows have to be better than smaller ones when you are turning a garage into a long, skinny room and the window is going to be off centre internally anywhere.

You are always going to have an issue because it isn't an extension that can be designed, it's a remodel of something very much existing. The room will also have odd dimensions and you can't blame the builder for that either. The builder has tried to mitigate and done the best that they can. It's clear from the varied replies on this thread that the result is not a bodge, but a matter of personal opinion, with two builders stating that plenty of people specify it that way. In my opinion, he did fine and at a very good price.

If you want perfection and symmetry, don't bother converting a garage.